Sustainable House Day,West Hobart, Tasmania

The brief was to build a comfortable ‘rural city home’ that blended into the hillside, was energy efficient with natural lighting, plenty of water, and provided an easy living environment.

Sustainable Elements of the house:

Footprint:    The house is split level, on a Stratum title on the outskirts of Hobart city, and occupies a small footprint.  The design is 2 rectangular pavilions twisted by 10°, separated by a Jarrah wedge of front and rear decks, with internal stairs.

Water :        A 5000Litre water tank as well as mains water.

Garden:    The garden is very small with low maintenance requirements.

External Walls:    Block and concrete

Internal Walls:    Stunning pre-formed black concrete panels provide thermal mass, and contrast beautifully with the Jarrah stairs and decks.

Roof:    R5.3 insulation consisting of roof blanket and bats

Floor:    Suspended polished concrete floors in most rooms.  Other rooms carpeted/Jarrah overlay

Windows:    Double glazed, with good cross-ventilation.

Sliding Door:    2.4m Sliding Door provides a wonderful feature in that it slides externally onto the deck, providing shelter from prevailing winds and opening up the living area to the deck.

Heating:    2 small heat pumps

Solar:    Future project to install PV and Solar Hot Water